Pg. 12 International Events

Knowledge exchange and collaborations

Pg. 16 Awards & Recognitions

Prestigious accolades for socially conscious innovations

Pg. 26 Flood Relief

Amrita’s contribution during 2018 Kerala floods

2nd Quarter 2018 Newsletter

Research

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Multidisciplinary collaborative discovery for societal challenges

International Partnerships

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Amrita and Harvard Global Health Institute

Innovation

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Cutting edge technology for compassionate problem solving

In August 2018, the state of Kerala was ravaged by theworst floods in the last 100 years. In response, Amritaresearchers deployed the Amrita Kripa App. This crowd-sourced, high-performance, multilingual, mobile and web application was designed to coordinate large-scale operations by collating and processing requests from multiple geographical locations in real-time. Read More Pg. 26

Amrita App Saves 12,000 in Kerala Floods

Amrita Chancellor Felicitated for Contribution towards Clean India Initiative

Secretary General of the UN, Mr. Antonio Guterres, and Prime Minister of India, Mr. Narendra Modi, with Amrita’s Chancellor, Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi

Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham is the only university from India to be featured in the Times Higher Education Millennial Universities, which ranks the world’s best universities aged 50 years or under. The prestigious list includes 36 universities from 23 countries. Nationally, Amrita is ranked the 8th best university in India in the 2018 National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) for Indian Universities. Coincidentally, Amrita is the only private institution featured in the top 10.

Amrita in Times Higher Education Millennial Universities

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The looming global crisis of antibiotic resistance, along with the difficulty in treating recalcitrant infections, creates a critical need for new and intelligent therapeutic modalities and novel means to combat pathogens. Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a major cause of secondary infections in immune-compromised patients and accounts for a significant percentage of total hospital-acquired infections. In fact, the World Health Organization (WHO) considers multidrug-resistant P. aeruginosa as a serious threat to global health.

In collaboration with the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), Amrita researchers employed a two-pronged approach to test the effect of clove bud oil on the virulence of P. aeruginosa and its effect to enhance the ability of the host to fight the infection. This research demonstrates that clove bud oil weakens key virulence mechanisms of the pathogen while also enhancing host innate immunomodulatory functions. Researchers also suggest using clove-bud oil as a topical therapy against antibiotic-resistant infections.

Haripriyan, J., Omanakuttan, A., Menon, N.D., Vanuopadath, M., Nair, S.S., Corriden, R., Nair, B.G., Nizet, V. and Kumar, G.B., 2018. “Clove Bud Oil Modulates Pathogenicity Phenotypes of the Opportunistic Human Pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa”, Scientific Reports, 8(1), p.3437.

Clove Bud Oil Modulates Pathogenicity Phenotypes of Pseudomonas Aeruginosa

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS

India is considered the oral cancer capital of the world. Therefore, the objectives of the current study were to identify the risk behaviors of oral cancer among adolescents and to assess their knowledge on oral cancer. A three-point rating scale was used to identify the risk behaviors of oral cancer via a standarized survey and participants were selected via convenience sampling. The sample comprised of 160 students from a Government Higher Secondary School in

Kerala. Of the ten risk behaviors of oral cancer assessed, behaviors most frequently found included: intake of smoked foods - (73.1%), lack of self-oral examination and propoer oral hygiene - (45.6%) and intake of hot or spicy foods - (33.7%). The study findings shed light on the need to conduct larger studies on risk behaviors and create more awareness on oral cancer among adolescents.

Ashly, K. S., Moly, K. T., & Joy, F. E. (2018). “Risk Behaviours and Knowledge on Oral Cancer Among Adolescents”. Indian Journal Of Public Health Research And Development, 9(5), 6-11.

Risk Behaviors of Oral Cancer Among Adolescents

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There has been a growing demand for bone grafts to correct bone defects in complicated fractures or tumors in the craniofacial region. Utilizing soft, flexible material that could be inserted by less invasive approaches to promote osteoconductivity and act as a barrier to soft tissue in-growth during bone formation is a viable option. Electrospinning has recently emerged as one of the most promising techniques for the fabrication of extracellular matrix such as nano-fibrous scaffolds that can serve as a template for bone formation. Amrita researchers fabricated a novel electrospun composite scaffold of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)-poly (ε) caprolactone (PCL)-Hydroxyapatite based bioceramic (HAB), or PVA-PCL-HAB. The scaffold, prepared by dual electrospinning of PVA and PCL with HAB, overcomes reduced cell attachment associated with hydrophobic PCL by combing with a hydrophilic PVA, while HAB can contribute to enhancing osteoconductivity. Researchers characterized the physicochemical and biocompatibility properties of the new scaffold material. Results validate that PVA-PCL-HAB scaffolds supported the attachment and growth of stromal stem cells - human bone marrow skeletal (mesenchymal), stem cells, and dental pulp stem cells. In addition, the scaffold supported in vitro osteogenic differentiation and in vivo vascularized bone formation. Thus, PVA-PCL-HAB scaffold is a suitable potential material for therapeutic bone regeneration in dentistry and orthopedics.

Prabha, R.D., Kraft, D.C.E., Harkness, L., Melsen, B., Varma, H., Nair, P.D., Kjems, J., Kassem, M., “Bioactive Nanofibrous Scaffold For Vascularized Craniofacial Bone Regeneration” (2018), Journal Of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, 12 (3).

Bioactive Nanofibrous Scaffold for Vascularized Craniofacial Bone Regeneration Amrita researchers at the Center for

Nanosciences and Molecular Medicine have developed a nanotextile-based small diameter vascular graft - the first non-occluding small diameter graft. The potential of the graft was proven in animal testing performed jointly with Bristol University, U.K. The technology was developed by Dr. Deepthy Menon and Dr. John Joseph, who did this work as part of his Ph.D. thesis at the Center. They designed and prototyped a robotic system capable of interweaving thousands of nano fibres into a flexible and strong product in a tubular form. This nanotextile-based conduit is suturable, kink proof, and non-thrombogenic. This method of preparing woven nanotextiles has wide applications in filters, catalysts, bioactive scaffolds, sensors, solar cells, and batteries. The work was published in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces in 2018 and a provisional patent has been filed.

J. Joseph, Krishnan, A. G., Cherian, A. M., Rajagopalan, B., Jose, R., Varma, P., Maniyal, V., Balakrishnan, S., Nair, S. V., and Menon, D., “Transforming Nanofibers into Wo-ven Nanotextiles for Vascular Application”, ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, vol. 10, pp. 19449-19458, 2018.

New Technology for Blood Vessel Grafts from Nanotextiles

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Eye Gaze–Based Optic Disc Detection SystemOptic disc (OD) detection is an important step in a number of algorithms developed for automatic extraction of anatomical structures and retinal lesions. In this article, a novel system, eye gaze–based OD detection, is presented to detect OD in fundus retinal image using knowledge developed from the expert’s eye gaze data. Eye gaze data was collected from expert optometrists and non-experts while viewing the fundus retinal images. Eye gaze fixations were used to identify the target and distractor regions. The image-based features were extracted from the identified regions. The top-down (TD) knowledge was developed using feature ranking and fuzzy systems. This TD knowledge was further used to build the TD map. Various standard benchmark datasets were used to test the system developed, with each dataset containing a set of fundus retinal images. System performance was validated for each dataset as shown by the following success rates of automatic detection: DRIVE - 100%, DRIONS-DB - 98.2%, INSPIRE - 97.5%, High Resolution Fundus Images - 100%, DIRECTDB0 - 96.9%, ONHSD - 91.9%, and STARE - 81.4%.

Kulkarni, N., Amudha, J., “Eye Gaze–Based Optic

Disc Detection System”, Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy

Systems, vol. 34, no. 3, pp. 1713-1722, 2018

Microwave Reflectivity Analysis of Bone Mineral Density Using Ultra Wide Band

This research presents an approach to analyze the bone mineral density (BMD) based on microwave reflectivity. The proposed method enables patients to overcome health risks associated with diagnostic techniques, such as X-rays, for repeated study of the rate of mineralization in the case of fractures or de-mineralization in the case of osteoporosis. The proposed method is used to demonstrate the application of microwaves for continuous observation of the skull healing process during post-cranial surgery. Based on the conclusions of wideband measured data and signal processing techniques, Amrita researchers proposed to design the transceiver using ultra-wideband (UWB) pulsed technology. This was a collaborative research project in partnership with Uppsala University, Sweden and the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.

R. Augustine, D. G. Kurup, S. Redzwan, P. Mathur, S. Raman, D. Lee, K. Kim, “Microwave Reflectivity Analysis Of Bone Mineral Density Using Ultra Wide Band“, Micro-wave and Optical Technology Letters, Volume 59, Issue 1, 1 Jan 2017, pages 21-26.

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Anti-Psoriatic and Toxicity Evaluation of Methotrexate Loaded Chitin Nanogel in Imiquimod Induced Mice Model Methotrexate loaded chitin nanogel (MCNG) was formulated for its topical use in psoriasis. MCNG was characterized by Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The MCNG particles were spherical in shape with a size of 196 ± 14 nm, having a surface charge of +9.21 ± 0.42 mv. MCNG exhibited greater swelling and drug release at acidic pH than neutral and alkaline conditions. The treatment with MCNG showed a significant level of toxicity on human skin keratinocyte cell line (HaCaT) and human monocytic cell line (THP-1) and was taken up well by HaCaT cells as revealed by fluorescent microscopy. MCNGs exhibited significant anti-inflammatory activity as revealed by the inhibitory effects observed on the activity of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and lipoxygenase-5 ( LOX-5) enzymes expressed in THP-1 cells. Skin permeation studies revealed an increased transdermal flux of methotrexate from MCNG with loosened stratum corneum and other epidermal layers of skin in comparison with control methotrexate solution treated samples. Significant anti-psoriatic efficacy on imiquimod (IMQ) induced model of psoriasis without any dermal and systemic toxicities suggest that it as an ideal delivery platform for topical delivery of methotrexate in psoriasis. Thus it is expected to become a better alternative for the oral delivery of methotrexate in the selected disease.

Panonnummal, R., Sabitha, M., “Anti-Psoriatic and

Toxicity Evaluation of Methotrexate Chitin Nanogel in

Imiquimod Induced Mice Model”, International Journal

of Biological Macromolecules, Pp. 245-258.

The advent of blockchains can be a significant enabler for IoTs towards conducting and verifying transactions in a secure manner. However, applying blockchains to IoTs is challenging due to the resource constrained nature of the embedded devices coupled with significant delay incurred in processing and verifying transactions in the blockchain. Thus, there exists a need for profiling the energy consumption of blockchains for securing IoTs and analyzing energy-performance trade-offs. Towards this goal, researchers at Amrita profiled the impact of workloads, based on smart contracts, to further quantify the power consumed by different operations performed by the devices on the ethereum platform. In contrast to existing approaches that are focused on performance, our researchers characterized performance and energy consumption for real workloads and analyzed energy-performance trade-offs. The proposed methodology is generic in that it can be applied to other platforms. Insights obtained from the study can be used to develop secure protocols for IoTs using blockchains.

Realistic Energy Profiling of Blockchains to Secure Internet of Things (IoT)

S. Sankaran, S. Sanju and K. Achuthan, “Towards Realistic Energy Profiling of Blockchains for Securing Internet of Things,” 2018 IEEE 38th International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems (ICDCS), Vienna, 2018, pp. 1454-1459.

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Rural India lacks easy access to health practitioners and medical centers and primarily depend on community health workers. In these areas, common ailments that are easy to manage with medicines often lead to medical escalations and even fatalities due to lack of awareness and delayed diagnosis. The introduction of wearable health devices has made it easier to monitor health conditions and connect doctors and patients in urban areas. However, existing initiatives have not succeeded in providing adequate health monitoring to rural and low-literate patients as current methods are expensive, require consistent connectivity and expect literate users. Amita researchers address these concerns by providing low-cost

medical devices connected to a low-cost health platform along with personalized guidance based on patient physiological parameters in local languages and alerts to medical practitioners in case of emergencies. This patient-centric integrated healthcare system manages the overall health of villagers with real-time health monitoring of patients, offers guidance on preventive care, and increases health awareness and self-monitoring at an affordable price. The system supports community health workers in the diagnostic procedure, management, and reporting of rural patients, and functions well even with only intermittent access to the Internet. The system has been granted an Indian patent.

Personalized Health Monitoring System for Managing Well-Being in Rural Areas

Nedungadi, P., Jayakumar, A., & Raman, R. (2018). “Personalized Health Monitoring System for Managing Well-Being in Rural Areas”, Journal of Medical Systems, 42(1), 22.

Potential for Mobile Health (mHealth) Prevention of Cardiovascular Diseases in KeralaIndia’s southern state of Kerala stands at the forefront of the nation’s cardiovascular disease epidemic. A major challenge lies in the prevention and effective monitoring of the disease for a large poppulation, 70% of which live in rural areas. The use of mobile phones in healthcare (mHealth) has shown promise in India; however, suitability and acceptability of mHealth interventions is poorly researched, particularly in rural settings.

A questionnaire was administered at primary health centers and by home visits in five village councils (panchayats) of Ernakulam, Kerala. Of the 262 participants recruited, 92% were willing to receive mHealth advice, 75.2% trusted the confidentiality of mHealth data while 77.1% had no concerns about the privacy of their information. While further investigation of

mHealth as a health education tool is warranted, interventions may fail to maximise equity and penetration across all patient groups.

L. Feinberg, Menon, J., Smith, R., Rajeev, J. G., Kumar, R. Krishan, and Banerjee, A., “Potential for mobile health (mHealth) prevention of cardiovascular diseases in Kerala: A population-based survey”, Indian Heart Journal, vol. 69, pp. 182 - 199, 2017.

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City regions in low and middle income countries (LMIC) are expanding as are the food security problems of their poorer inhabitants. The nutritional properties of seafood make it vital to sustain the health and food security of millions of poor urban consumers. This project studies the food systems that service low-income consumers in selected city regions of South Asia (India) and West Africa (Ghana) with the aim of improving their quality and scope. These food systems – in which women entrepreneurs

often play an important role - derive produce from small-scale as well as industrial (distant water) fisheries, which possess various degrees of environmental sustainability. The project gathers relevant fisheries and food security expertise, pilots new business approaches, and investigates their relevant policy environments. The governance lessons gained from these two regions are generalized and disseminated into the international debate on fish-related food security.

Fish for Food Security in City Regions of India & Ghana: An Inter-regional Innovation Project [Fish4Food]

A. Jyotishi, Gopakumar V., H. Hapke, “Understanding Continuity and Change in Urban Commodity Markets: A Plural theoretical Perspective”, in AILP Conference, University of Indonesia, Jakarta, 2018.

This book offers an assessment of the performance, impact, and welfare implications of the world’s largest employment guarantee program, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). Launched by the Government of India, the program covers entire rural area of the country. The book presents various micro-level analyses of the program and its heterogeneous impacts at different scales, almost a decade after its implementation. While there are some doubts over the future of the scheme as well as its magnitude, nature, and content, the central government appears committed to it as a ‘convergence scheme’ of various other welfare and rural development programs implemented at both the national and state levels. The book discusses the outcomes of the

Employment Guarantee Program and Dynamics of Rural Transformation in India

program and offers critical insights into the lessons learnt, not only in the context of India but also for similar schemes in countries in South and South-East Asia as well as in Africa, and Latin America. Adopting inter-disciplinary perspectives in analyzing these issues, this unique book uses a judicious mix of methods - integrating quantitative and qualitative tools - and will be an invaluable resource for analysts, NGOs, policymakers and academics alike.

Book: https://www.springer.com/in/ book/9789811062612

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INNOVATIONS

A team of 12 surgeons at the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Center removed a football-size mass of matter weighing 4.8 kg (around 10 lbs) and measuring 20 cm x 20 cm x 20 cm from 19 year-old Amar Samad. The 14 hour surgery was free of cost for the young tribal boy from Jharkhand. Amar had lived a secluded life for the last 10 years due to a rare genetic abnormality that resulted in a jaw tumor so large that it had not been reported in medical literature. The dense collection of bone and fibrous tissue was diagnosed as “ossifying fibroma”. Amar also suffered from a parathyroid adenoma (a benign tumor of the parathyroid gland), which might have initiated the problem.

Amrita Surgeons Remove Football-Size Tumor from Tribal Boy’s Jaw Researchers from Amrita Multi Modal

Applications Using Computer Human Interaction Labs (AMMACHI Labs) have developed a board game, ‘Aadarsh Gaon’, that provides a way for players to build an ideal community through social problem-solving. The safe, risk-free setting brings players together to work as a team, think critically, and form strategies. It gives players an opportunity to volunteer, collect resources, and solve social problems to build an ideal community. Serious games, especially board games like these, make a positive difference. This game-based approach has made the Labs’ initiatives more constructive, relevant, and meaningful.

Aadarsh Gaon: The Social Problem Solving Game

Amrita Technology Business Incubator (Amrita TBI) successfully concluded its first cohort of the Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) program under the National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing Innovations (NIDHI). The program nurtured more than 16 innovative startups with monthly fellowships and mentorship for 12 months. Amrita TBI is a Program Execution Partner under NIDHI-EIR, Government of India.

Nurturing Ideas & Innovations into Successful Startups

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Amrita Selected as Finalist in Barbara Bush Foundation’s Adult Literacy XPRIZE CompetitionThe Center for Research in Advanced Technologies for Education was selected as one of five finalist teams in the Barbara Bush Foundation’s Adult Literacy XPRIZE competition. The Center was awarded a cash prize of $7 million in an awards ceremony on June 25, 2018 in New Orleans, U.S.A. This global competition challenges teams to develop reading apps for android devices.

After successfully commissioning India’s first Internet of Things (IoT) based landlside warning system in Kerala’s Western Ghats, the Center for Wireless Networks and Applications is now readying the second installation in Sikkim to guard against rainfall-induced landslides in the Sikkim-Darjeeling belt.

“The Indian Roads Congress estimates that 15% of India’s landmass is prone to landslides including areas like the Western Ghats and Konkan Hills, Eastern Ghats, North East Himalayas, and North West Himalayas. In North East Himalayas, the Sikkim-Darjeeling belt is at the most risk of landslides, which is why we chose this area to install our landslide detection system,” said Dr. Maneesha V. Ramesh, Director, Center for Wireless Networks & Applications.

Amrita’s new IoT system for landslides is custom developed for Himalayan geology. It consists of over 200 sensors that measure geophysical and hydrological parameters like rainfall, pore pressure, and seismic activity. It will monitor a densely populated area spanning 150 acres around the Chandmari village in Sikkim’s Gangtok

District. The project is jointly funded by the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India and Amrita.

The Center has also initiated a landslide-research project with the British Geological Society and the U.K. Met Office to develop regional thresholds for landslide warning in the Sikkim-Darjeeling belt and the Western Ghats. Amrita was awarded the ‘World Center of Excellence on Landslide Disaster Reduction’ in 2017 by the International Program on Landslides (IPL) at the fourth World Landslide Forum, held at Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Real-Time IoT-Based Landslide Warning System in Sikkim

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INTERNATIONAL PARTNERSHIPS

North America

South America

Europe

Asia

Australia

Africa

Amrita aims to enhance education and research by bringing together students, teachers, and academicians from around the world to create an opportunity for a rich and diverse exchange of knowledge and ideas. The institution has launched over 200 international joint research projects, collaborative programs, and educational tie-ups.

Amrita Technology Business Incubator (Amrita TBI) has been recognized as a global strategic partner for Berkeley Skydeck Accelerator, University of California, Berkeley, U.S.A. Shortlisted Amrita TBI startups will directly qualify for Round-1, which has an acceptance rate of 20%. More than 1,000 startups from around the world apply for this program.

Amrita Partners with U.C. Berkeley Skydeck Accelerator

Dr. Krishnashree Achuthan, CEO, Amrita TBI and Mr. Snehal Shetty, COO, Amrita TBI meet Berkeley Skydeck Accelerator team at University of California, Berkeley, U.S.A.

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Asia

Africa

The Center for Wireless Networks and Applications has entered into an agreement with the National Research Council (CNR) IRPI. The agreement encourages and promotes international academic and research co-operation, institutional exchanges between faculty and researchers, organization of training programs, symposia, conferences, short courses, and meetings on research issues in hydrological problems of mutual interest. It also includes the exchange of information, resources, and expertise pertaining to developments in hydrometeorological monitoring, flash floods, floods and droughts, groundwater, climate change and natural hazards studies, methodologies, research and innovation. The agreement was signed by Dr. Fausto Guzzetti, Director, CNR - Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche and Dr. Maneesha V. Ramesh, Director, Center for Wireless Networks & Applications.

Center for Wireless Networks & Applications Partners with Prestigious Italian Institution The Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences and

Research Center in Kochi signed an MoU with the Harvard Global Health Institute to exchange and promote best practices and research in Critical Care, Pain Medicine, and Anesthesiology. The areas of cooperation under the MoU include identifying opportunities for joint research and an active exchange program for faculty and students from both institutions.

The School of Biotechnology has recently partnered with ID Genomics, Washington, U.S.A. for the Antibiotic Resistance Monitoring, Analysis, and Diagnostics Alliance (ARMADA) project. ARMADA is the flagship project of ID Genomics focused on products designed to personalize the treatment of infectious diseases and improve the lives of patients.

Amrita Joins Hands with Harvard Global Health Institute

School of Biotechnology Signs Memorandum with ID Genomics

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INTERNATIONALEVENTS

Dr. Prem Nair, Medical Director at the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Center, Kochi campus, gave an invited talk on “Delivering Exceptional Technology and High Quality Healthcare to the Underserved at Low Cost in India” at the Harvard Institute of Global Health, U.S.A., on June 27, 2018.

Medical Director Delivers Talk at Harvard Institute of Global Health

Dr. Manju V., Professor, Department of Prosthodontics, School of Dentistry, Kochi, has been honoured as a visiting faculty scholar at the Division of Advanced Prosthodontics, School of Dentistry, University of California, Los Angeles, U.S.A. from 2018 onwards.

She recently successfully completed the program on Advanced Training in Maxillofacial Prosthetics, a postgraduate certificate program specifically devoted to maxillofacial prosthetics from UCLA.

Faculty Member Honored as Visiting Faculty Scholar at the University of California, Los Angeles

Amrita Hosts Chinese Cloud Computing CompanyAmrita Technology Business Incubator (Amrita TBI) hosted Alibaba company representatives at a cloud computing meetup in Bangalore. Startups, cloud computing experts, community and industry leaders came together and explored the Alibaba Cloud’s platform and its offerings. This was Alibaba Cloud’s foray into the Indian market with various discounted and features.

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International Conferences Attended by Researchers from Center for Wireless Networks & Applications

Prof. Sethuraman Rao presented a paper on Mobile Infrastructure for Coastal Region Offshore Communications & Networks (MICRONet) at the 2018 WCNEE workshop in April held at IEEE INFOCOM. In another conference, Mr. Rahul Krishnan, Project Associate, presented a paper titled, “Deriving High Performance Alerts from Reduced Sensor Data for Timely Intervention in Acute Hypotensive Episodes”, at the 2018 IEEE EMBC conference in July.

The workshop attempted to demonstrate and explore possible solutions towards achieving automation for a radial distribution grid. The distribution and sub-distribution system offer the electricity board very minimal visibility, control or resilience to systemic inconsistencies or glitches.

Workshop on ICT Enabled Distribution Grid-Stabiliz Energy

The Center for Wireless Networks & Applications organized a workshop on ICT Enabled Distribution Grid-Stabiliz Energy on March 22, 2018.

A 14 member delegation from U.S. universities visited Amrita’s Coimbatore campus on March 19, 2018 as part of the Fulbright-Nehru International Education Administrators (FN-IEA) Program. The delegation met with heads of departments from the School of Engineering and was very impressed with the institution’s Live-in-Labs® program - a multidisciplinary experiential learning initiative in rural India.

Fulbright-Nehru International Education Administrators Visit Amrita’s Coimbatore Campus

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In the summer of 2018, a seven-member delegation, comprised of senior faculty from Amrita, visited over 30 universities in the U.S. and Canada. The purpose of the visits was to initiate and expand on existing educational and research collaborations such as student exchange programs, dual degree programs, experiential learning programs, joint research projects and Ph.D. co-guidance. Delegates met with deans, directors of research centers, and senior professors from institutions such as Harvard University, Stanford University, MIT, the University of Chicago, the University of Texas at Dallas, the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign, UC Davis, UC Irvine, Rutgers University, University at Buffalo, UC Riverside, the University of New Mexico, and the University of Maryland.

University Visits Abroad

Amrita delegates at Ryerson University, Canada in July 2018

Prof. Raghu Raman, Chairperson, School of Business, Coimbatore campus spoke on the topic “Adoption and Diffusion of Global Rankings in India” at the EduData Summit organized by QS and held at MIT on June 19, 2018. EduData Summit is the world’s premium platform for data driven educators, strategists, and data scientists.

Amrita Faculty Speaks at EduData Summit at MIT

Ms. Indukala P. K., research scholar at the Center for Wireless Networks & Applications has been invited by Università Roma Tre, Rome, Italy, to work on the project titled, “IoT Framework for Modeling, Monitoring and Damage Detection of Natural and Historical Heritage Structures”.

Research Scholar Invited by Università Roma Tre, Rome Dr. Jayaraj Poroor, Chairperson, Department

of Computer Science and Engineering, School of Engineering, Amritapuri campus, has been selected for the Second Deep Spec Summer School on Verified Systems to be held at Princeton University, from July 16-27, 2018.

Dr. Jayaraj’s proposal for a new domain-specific programing language for data processing on Internet of Things devices has been accepted by the Microsoft Research India Summer Workshop.

Faculty Member Receives Invitation to Princeton University

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Professor Bhavani Rao, UNESCO Chairholder in Women’s Empowerment & Gender Equality, was invited to speak at the sixty-second session of the Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations Headquarters in New York between March 12-22, 2018. The priority theme was “Challenges and Opportunities in Achieving Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Rural Women and Girls”.

Amrita Professor Speaks at the United Nations

Over the course of 18 months, Amrita Multi Modal Applications Using Computer Human Interaction Labs (AMMACHI Labs) engaged in a multidimensional scoping study which included cross-country field visits with the REAL Center, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. Facilitated by NORRAG, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Switzerland, the project focused on better understanding the dynamics of skill development among unreached populations and the role of ICT. The insights gathered were shared with national level policy makers.

Skill Development Among Unreached Populations & The Role of ICT

Ms. Srividya Sheshadri, Ph.D. student, AMMACHI Labs, with researchers from the REAL Center, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa

Amrita witnessed Asia’s first Hello India x Russia Programing Bootcamp, in collaboration with Harbour Space University, Barcelona, Spain and Moscow Institute of Physics & Technology, from March 22-30, 2018. The camp was attended by 105 participants from 27 universities and several industries. The bootcamp was held through the private initiatives of Social Discovery Ventures, Phaze Ventures, and the Al Jisr Foundation.

Amrita Hosts Third Hello Programing Bootcamp in Collaboration with Moscow Workshops ACM ICPC

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AWARDS &RECOGNITIONS

Amrita’s Chancellor, Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, was recognized for her outstanding and sustained contribution to Swachh Bharat Kosh (Clean India Initiative) by the Prime Minister of India, Mr. Narendra Modi, and UN Secretary General, Mr. Antonio Guterres. The Chancellor was felicitated by the Prime Minister on the occasion of the Mahatma Gandhi International Sanitation Convention. This was a first-of-its-kind international sanitation event, conducted by a national government, where the Indian Prime Minister, the UN Secretary General, and senior ministers and bureaucrats from 70 countries were present.

As an institution, Amrita has landed the top spot in the 2018 Swachh Campus Rankings of the Ministry of Human Resources Development (HRD), Government of India, for the second consecutive year. Over 6,000 higher educational institutions participated in the rankings, which are part of the Swachh Bharat initiative launched by the Prime Minister of India. Ranking is based on a sustainability audit focusing on campus greenery, cleanliness and maintenance, toilet adequacy on campus, tree planting, and community outreach in promoting swachh (clean) culture.

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Team Agraganya from the School of Engineering, Amritapuri campus, competed in the ‘Electric Only’ category of Formula Hybrid 2018 hosted by the Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth, U.S.A. from April 30 to May 3, 2018. The event was held at the New Hampshire Speedway, known for hosting the Nascar cup series race each year.

Electric Vehicle Designed by Amrita Engineering Students at U.S.A. Competition

Mr. Sivanand Devarakonda, School of Engineering, Bangalore campus, has been awarded a scholarship to pursue a masters program at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden. The scholarship came after he bagged the first prize at the KTH Master’s Challenge 2018.

Amrita Engineering Student Wins KTH Master’s Challenge 2018

Virtual Labs Project Receives the 2018 GOLC Online Lab Award

On March 23, 2018, the institution’s Virtual Laboratories project and its deployment outcomes won the 2018 GOLC Online Lab Award in the category of Visualized Experiments. It recognized Amrita’s role in promoting development, sharing, and research into remotely accessible laboratories for educational use and for increasing interest in developing and deploying online labs for sustainable goals in education. Dr. Shyam Diwakar, School of Biotechnology, received the award on behalf of the team.

Amrita and Wipro Limited jointly won the Aegis Graham Bell Awards (AGBA) 2017, in the category of Innovation in mHealth, for their joint initiative, ‘Redefining Primary Comfort Using mHealth’ at the eighth edition of the Aegis Graham Bell Awards. The collaboration, led by the School of Biotechnology, has developed a mobile health solution using a novel glucose monitoring system integrated with a cloud-based monitoring application that provides more efficient and effective diabetes care.

Amrita-Wipro Collaboration Wins Aegis Graham Bell Award

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Dr. Arun Mamachan Xavier, Reader, Department of Paediatric Dentistry, School of Dentistry, Kochi, was awarded the ‘Young Researcher Award’ by a resolution of the International Award of Excellence Dental Awards Council held at the Grand Award Ceremony at Holiday Inn, Kensington High St. London, U.K., on July 21, 2018. Dr. Arun also presented a paper titled, “Dental Considerations and Management in Sickle Cell Anemia – A Case Report”, at the conference.

Young Researcher Award for School of Dentistry Faculty Member

Dr. Shyam Sunder M., Professor, Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, School of Dentistry, Kochi campus, has successfully completed a Residency Program in Implantology conducted by the University at Buffalo, State University of New York. Dr. Syam Sunder received the award from Dr. Seb Adriano, Head of Implant Dentistry, University at Buffalo, on July 20, 2018.

Amrita Professor Completes Residency Program in Implantology from University at Buffalo

Dr. Maya Mahajan, School of Engineering, Coimbatore campus, received the International Women Achiever Award 2018 for her outstanding contribution and achievements in the field of Environment and Sustainability Sciences at the International Women’s Meet held on March 3, 2018 in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

Amrita Faculty Member Receives 2018 International Women Achiever Award

Amrita Researcher Receives Stanford University’s 2018 FabLearn Global Excellence AwardStanford University’s 2018 FabLearn Global Excellence Practitioner Award has been granted to Akshay Nagarajan, Researcher at Amrita Multi Modal Applications Using Computer Human Interaction Labs (AMMACHI Labs). He received this award in recognition of his achievements and efforts to advance maker education and for his exemplary commitment to outreach, connecting communities and bringing equity to education in rural communities in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh.

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Amrita Faculty Receives the Ramalingaswami Re-entry Fellowship

Dr. Binulal Nelson Sathy, Assistant Professor, Center for Nanosciences and Molecular Medicine, Kochi campus, has been awarded the prestigious Ramalingaswami Re-entry Fellowship by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Govt. of India, for the year 2016-2017.

Dr. Hisham Ahamed, Assistant Professor, School of Medicine, Kochi, received the Best Poster award for his research titled, “Clinical Profile of a Large Family with Familial HCM and Alpha Tropomyosin Mutations” at the International Clinical Cardiovascular Genetics Conference 2018 held at Brisbane, Australia. He also received the Best Oral presentation award for his research titled, “Clinical and Phenotypic Expression of PRKAG2 Cardiomyopathy”.

Laurels for Amrita Cardiologist at International Clinical Cardiovascular Genetics Conference 2018

Amrita Wins Best Accredited Computer Society of India (CSI) Student Branch for Seventh Consecutive YearThe Computer Society of India (CSI) branch of the School of Engineering, Coimbatore, which is hosted by the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, has set a unique national record by securing the ‘Best Accredited CSI Student Branch in India’ award for the seventh consecutive year. Additionally, for the second successive year, Amrita has emerged as the top university in the CSI Convention with 10 awards for its faculty and students.

Security Solution for the Ministry of DefenceSix final year B.Tech students - collectively known as Cyber Sena - won the top award at the 2018 Smart India Hackathon by developing a secure system for the Ministry of Defence. Through white-listing of pen drives, the solution enables easy transfer of data from one network to another and prevents unauthorized access to copied data.

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The team participated in a 36-hour-long Smart India Hackathon (SIH) 2018 and won the top prize for developing innovative digital solutions for 340 problems posted by 28 Union Ministries and 18 State Governments. The team also developed three apps of which two apps related to the Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Commerce & Industry bagged the top awards and cash prizes of Rs. 1 lakh ($100,000) each. The third app for the AYUSH Ministry got a special award in the Students’ Innovation category.

Computer Science Students at the 2018 Smart India Hackathon

Team Vision’s innovation was selected as a top 20 innovation in the industrial sector category in the India Innovation Growth Program (IIGP) 2.0 University Challenge held at IIT Bombay (IITB). The team also secured the first prize out of 75,000 teams worldwide in the Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) EngiNX 2018 Digital Twin Challenge.

Team Vision Bags 1st Prize in International Digital Twin Challenge

National Recognition for Amrita Incubated StartupsIncubated startups by the Amrita Technology Business Incubator (Amrita TBI) have won several national awards. Startup company Yottaasy was awarded NASSCOM’s Most Innovative Emerging AI Company (2018) and Nextsky Technologies won the Emerging IT Company of the Year and Leadership in IT (Manufacturing) award at ‘Marketing Excellence 2018’ organized by the Times Group.

Amrita at 12th Educational Fair in NepalAmrita participated in the 12th India Education Fair in two cities in Nepal - Kathmandu and Birat Nagar. This is the oldest and most popular Indian higher education showcase in Nepal with support from the ‘Study in India’ initiative by the Indian government’s Ministry for Human Resource Development (MHRD). Amrita representatives were in Nepal from July 6-10, 2018.

The School of Engineering, Coimbatore campus, received the title ‘Best Institute of the Year’ for the innovative pedagogical approaches and tools for Computer Science & Engineering from the Computer Society of India (CSI) Mumbai chapter and IIT Bombay on February 11, 2018, at IIT Bombay. In addition, ‘Best Faculty of the Year’ titles were won by Dr. K.V. Shriram and Prof. Prashant R. Nair.

TechNext India 2018 Awards

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Amrita Alumnus Wins Prestigious Microsoft Platinum Club Award

Amrita alumnus Mr. Gangadhar Kodandaram recently won the FY18 Microsoft Platinum Club Award for consistent performance at the highest level. Mr. Kodandaram is a 2006 MBA graduate from the School of Business, Coimbatore campus.

Platinum Club is Microsoft’s premier award program for recognizing and rewarding individuals who consistently perform at the highest level and directly contribute to the company’s success. Earning the prestigious Platinum Club Award is an honor that only a few of Microsoft’s finest employees ever achieve.

Students Develop App for the Ministry of Commerce & IndustryThe Andorid app Niryatak, developed by a team of 2nd year B.Tech students for Indian exporters and manufacturers, won the top prize in response to a challenge posed by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Govt. of India. The app helps calculate the correct post-production cost of any product being exported and suggests what the selling price should be for optimum profit. The app has features such as a live-in built map to show optimum routes for transport of goods to the nearest port and the latest currency exchange rates.

Amrita’s Amritapuri campus and the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences & Research Center, Kochi campus, were presented with an excellence award by the Honorable Chief Minister of Kerala, Shri. Pinarayi Vijayan, at the World Environment Day celebrations held in Trivandrum, Kerala on June 7th, 2018. The award was bestowed for sustainable initiatives in proper waste management, water management, energy management, and social responsibility initiatives for 2016-2017.

Amrita Wins Prestigious Award on World Environment Day

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LIVE-IN-LABS®

As part of Amrita’s Live-in-Labs® program, a credit-based multidisciplinary experiential learning course in rural India, over hundred students and sixteen faculty from the Coimbatore, Bangalore, and Amritapuri campuses visited thirteen villages across eleven states in North India in June. The ten-day visit was preceded by an intensive six day workshop where 5th semester students from the School of Biotechnology and the School of Engineering (Departments of Mechanical, Computer Science, Electrical and Electronics, Electronics and Communication, Aerospace, and Chemical Engineering) learned various tools and techniques

to identity challenges in rural communities.

The three credit elective, which is integrated into the University’s curriculum, emphasizes human-centered research, grounded in compassionate design, for the development and deployment of sustainable solutions in rural India. The program enables students to live in rural communities and gain first-hand knowledge and know-how of identifying challenges, assessing community needs, co-designing viable and sustainable solutions with community residents, and subsequently implementing solutions through various participatory methods.

A Meeting of the Heart & Mind

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Mr. Pol Borras Font, an international student from UPC, Spain, has been a participant of Amrita’s Live-in-Labs® program for the past 6 months. During his time at Amrita, Pol worked on a project focusing on alternative architectural and construction solutions for affordable housing in villages using locally available materials.

Guided by Dr. Anil Kumar from the Department of Civil Engineering and Mr. Harish Mohan from AMMACHI Labs, the project proposes to analyze, design, execute, and teach the rammed earth construction method in the village of Dewgain in Jharkhand, India. Rammed earth is a method used primarily to build solid walls by compacting earth in progressive layers inside a temporary form.

Alternative Architecture for Affordable Rural Construction

Pol manually compacting earth in the designed form-work

Completed house via rammed earth construction technique

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I was very excited to travel and do research abroad and since my major is Biomedical Sciences, I had an interest in studying health disparities in global health. As my interests were in line with the Live-in-Labs® program, I knew the program was right for me; I would get an opportunity to do research in the field and work to help improve the lives of underprivileged rural populations in India. I saw this as a good opportunity to apply what I had learned in school and subsequently travelled to India with a fellow UB student Arslan Haghdel.

The sites for our ‘labs’ or villages were Alappad, located in the Kollam district of Kerala, and Mothakara, a tribal village located in the Wayanad district of Kerala (located in South India). The project we worked on was the deployment of medical wearable devices for people with diabetes and cardiovascular diseases in rural remote villages where healthcare institutions are not accessible. A wearable Electrocardiogram (ECG) machine (Amrita Spandanam) and a Non-invasive glucose monitor have been designed by the Center for Wireless and Networks Applications. We conducted further tests with the device by collecting diabetic patients’ glucose levels by using our wearabledevices with the standard method for comparison.

Overall, I had a great time doing research in India. The welcoming and supportive environment from the local people and the Amrita staff contributed a lot to the great experience I had of living and working there.

Aye Bay Na Sa, B.Sc. Biomedical Sciences, University at Buffalo, U.S.A.Service Year: 2017

FIELD STORY

Live-in-Labs® Experience is the final evidence for knowing

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Experience is the final evidence for knowing https://www.amrita.edu/international/live-in-labs®

Thirty students and faculty from Canada, the U.S. and Switzerland recently participated in a water and health project which happened to coincide with the August 2018 Kerala floods. Students came from various backgrounds such as Nursing, Nutrition, Urban Planning, and Social Work. Seventeen Master of Social Work students from the Department of Social Work, Coimbatore campus, also participated in the project.

After an initial campus orientation, the group of international and Amrita students, along with facluty and staff from the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Center for International Programs, Amritapuri campus, and the School of Business, Bangalore campus, set off to the Alappuzha district of Kerala. The district is famous for its unspoiled scenic beauty and is

commonly referred as the rice bowl of the state.

Due to an unusually heavy monsoon which flooded the area, students focused on understanding challenges faced by the local people. Students were given the opportunity to participate directly in relief operations, in the form of medical camps, and travelled by boat to many places to comfort survivors. Students also participated in the Jivamritam clean drinking water filter deployment project and an awareness program regarding waterborne illnesses. Students worked in sub-areas such as assessing the impact of natural disasters on health, post-disaster psychological shifts of children in flood affected areas, women’s health and hygiene in flood affected areas, and socio-economic factors during natural disasters.

International Students Participate in Flood Relief Projects

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FLOOD RELIEF BY AMRITA

As soon as news hit of the devastating floods in early August 2018, faculty and students from the Amritapuri and Coimbatore campuses set up Compassionate Kerala Call Centers for 24-hour flood relief and rescue operations. Service continued weeks after the floods subsided as part of the institution’s efforts towards community rehabilitation.

AMRITA HELPLINE

Doctors, paramedics, and specialists from general medicine, surgery, dermatology, ophthalmology, and pediatrics, from the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Center at Kochi, conducted more than 3,000 medical relief camps where over 1 million people were treated across various flood-affected areas in the state of Kerala. High tech telemedicine and medical vans accompanied health specialists to the field.

MEDICAL CAMPS

25,000Calls to Helpline

12,000People Saved

3,500Amrita KripaApp Users

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The Center for Wireless Networks & Applications issued a two-level warning in the district of Idduki about the possibility of a rain-fall induced landslide. District authorities were alerted when pore pressure began to steadily increase and rainfall intensity was detected to cross the threshold.

EARLY WARNING

Amrita Kripa is a high-performance, multilingual, user-friendly, crowd-sourced mobile and web application for the effective and timely management of rescue, relief, and rehabilitation efforts. During the 2018 Kerala floods, the app helped locate, rescue, and provide relief to more than 12,000 people across Kerala. The app is available for free download by Google.

AMRITA KRIPA APP

More than 30 Amrita Vidyalayam schools across the state were converted into relief camps, each one sheltering over 1,000 people. Camps were supplied with food, water, personal care items, and medicines, catering to the eseential needs of survivors.

RELIEF CAMPS

Amrita’s one year old Jivamritam project quickly became a part of the flood reflief activities as access to clean drinking water was one of the most pressing needs in the state. Identifying this requirement, members at the Center for International Programs and the Center for Wireless Networks & Applications planned deployments of water filtrations systems at 75 locations across Kerala.

JIVAMRITAM - CLEAN DRINKING WATER INITIATIVEStudents and faculty formed a network of relief

centers, suppliers, and local volunteer groups to disseminate various relief items. Food, groceries, and drinking water were provided with warm clothes. Personal care items and medical supplies such as antiseptics and antifungals were also distributed along with school bags and notebooks.

MATERIAL SUPPLY

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www.facebook.com/International.Amritawww.facebook.com/AmritaUniversity

+91 476 280 4152+91 476 280 4162

international@amrita.eduwww.amrita.edu

Amrita Center for International Programs (ACIP)

Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham,

Amritapuri Campus,

Amritapuri, Clappana P.O.

Kollam - 690 525, Kerala, INDIA

Phone: +91 476 280 4152

Email: international@amrita.edu

Web: www.amrita.edu/international

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